The colors of fall adorned the trees of the lowlands forest this sunny day. The oranges, yellows, and reds filling the land with the color of the sunlit sky. In the mountains the forest hadn't changed much of all of course, the evergreen trees staying true to their name and remaining their brilliantly dark greens as they will throughout the entire year. Those animals that didn't migrate off to parts unknown were finalizing their hibernation preparations or just going about their day as they always had. The insect population had also dramatically gone down which was something some people looked forward to.

I on the other had had been kept busy the last week or so, the resident goddess of now two separate villages. It amazed me that during this time I had only needed to sleep for about a day or two with the rest of the time spent doing my best to help the villages prepare for winter.

Firstly there was the gathering of firewood which was easy enough, just going up into the mountains and pulling down a few trees here and there to bring back to the village. In fact due to how easy it was for me to do there was a limit placed on how much I would get for them, the idea being not to allow them to get reliant on me for their survival. The upcoming field harvests were something I was planning to have limited involvement with as well.

The village of Doovlin had its stone wall mostly complete at this point. It was a pain in the ass for me to go collect all those huge stones up in the mountains, but in the end it was worth it to make such a defensible position around the village. Due to the natural barrier of the river it only was a wall that went around the village in three directions, leaving the river side basically open. A functioning gate was also a bit too tricky for me to make at the moment so it was left as a simple one that only opened and closed.

But enough about the village and how it was doing. What about me? After the powering up I had gone through it was finally possible for me to create clothing. My outfit of a simple little dress not only could be un-modest at times, it also didn't fit the season of fall at all. Even though it was clear the weather of hot and cold didn't affect me much it was possible the colder it got that it could make me chilled. After much deliberation and experimentation, with the helpful advice of my high priestess of course, the outfit I had finalized was simple and yet cute in my eyes.

Firstly my simple dress was replaced with a cute full body length shirt of orange that was like an oversized t-shirt. I decided to ditch the dress thing for now and go with this shirt and a pair of simple fabric pants, in a deep red of course to match the season. Then to tie it all together and cover my arms there was a brown jacket, the kind with the hood attached to it and the zipper in front. It took some explaining for Miya to understand zippers and every subsequent person who say it afterwards repeated the explanation. Finally of course was some comfy socks and shin height dark brown boots. I can't begin to explain how nice it was to finally not be running around barefoot all the time.

So what sort of things were on my docket for the moment? Well improvements for the village Yuvoghen were currently the top priority. There was going to be a wooden wall around their village and a moat as well. That mage family was not to be trusted with the defenses of the village. Maybe they had been doing it for the time past, but I had a feeling that now that a goddess was around they would be abandoning the village to a certain degree.

The Nimelly family. They lived in a tower in the forest a couple miles away from the village and kept to themselves even before my appearance according to the villagers. With everything I remembered about mages and wizards, even though it was limited, they were not to be trusted. Normally their type would seek power and nothing else, their schemes embroiling those around them in chaos and subterfuge of all varieties.

I had been keeping my distance from them as the more interaction I had with them the more likely they were to find out the goddess didn't know as much as they thought she did. The instant they figure out how naive I am about this world will be the instant they can never be trusted with anything ever again. Even if they don't start lying in an effort to manipulate me they will certainly start keeping things from me in an attempt to make me as ignorant as possible.

"Goddess!"

Miya's voice snapped me out of deep thought. It seemed as of late how to deal with that mage family was the thing that kept me awake at night. The fact goddess's didn't need to sleep being notwithstanding.

We were sitting in the mountain forest in the middle of a small clearing somewhere halfway between both villages. The promise to give Miya powers finally had been something I had been working on a while now and felt that it was finally time to go through with it. This was something that could be dangerous you know and I had to be sure it was absolutely safe.

"Yes Miya" I said looking down at her in front of my legs. "Are you ready?"

Miya was filled with excitement, practically bouncing around my feet.

"Yes goddess I've never been more ready for anything in my life!"

"Ok ok. Calm down and hold still. Now remember if anything feels wrong or hurts tell me immediately ok?"

"Of course goddess." She said finally settling down.

With that I took a deep sigh and closed my eyes. This was going to be different than just filling something with my mana, this was going to be imparting some of my power permanently into something else, in this case a living person. In the experimentation I had done this with both plants and animals, though the results were hard to solidify due to them not being able to talk. What was important was that none of them had died either when implanting or removing my power. Basically it was going to be like leaving a little seed inside of Miya.

"Here we go."

The world around me was filtered much more clearly within my goddess vision now. Miya stood before me on the ground as a tiny little thing, so small and yet so precious. As gently as I could imagine it was possible I reached out with my mind towards her body. Is was strange that my perspective could change as I got closer to her as if my viewpoint was one of someone around her size, though of course it could all be a method my mind interpenetration these actions.

As slowly as possible I entered into her body, gently seeking out the thing that I needed. From the testing on animals earlier my understanding of the goddess vision had advanced quite a bit. The reason I could see all the people and animals around me in such clarity is because I was seeing their souls. This was the thing my search inside Miya was seeking, the core of her very soul. Once I find it and attached a small portion of my mana to it that is what will give her my blessing, though what exactly that will result in not even I could truly control. Super strength seemed like an easy thing to start out with trying.

"It feels weird goddess!" Miya said. "Are- Are you inside of me right now? I can feel it!"

My concentration on this task was paramount and I didn't reply to her.

There it was! A brilliantly shining beacon of light at the core of her body, the brilliance of the brightest star in the universe paled in comparison to its sparkling beauty. The glory of the soul. It filled me with such emotion.

Slowly I reached out my hand in my mind inside her body, my own arm glowing with the same intensity as my soul reached out to hers. In my hand was a ball of mana, my intentions of power for one I cared about inscribed upon it. Then with the delicacy of a surgeon opening someone's heart I placed the orb of mana onto the core of Miya's soul.

"Ooooh!" She moaned.

The ball of mana took hold and stuck, my hand withdrawing in a jerking motion as I was surprised by her reaction. Quickly withdrawing my presence from deep inside her I could see her body sort of hanging backwards in a strange limp fashion, her arms dangling to her sides.

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"Miya!"

My voice called out from my body before my mind could fully return to it. I collected myself back into my body as quickly as possible. My eyes opened and thankfully Miya was standing back upright.

"How do you feel?" I asked leaning in closely. "Does anything hurt? What's wrong?"

Miya had her eyes open now and was looking at her hands. She had lifted them in front of her and was opening and clenching them. It didn't seem like she was in any pain but she was acting confused.

"I-I feel strange goddess" She said.

With a sigh I relaxed. "Thank father you're alright. If nothings wrong then something must have worked. I tried to make you super strong so maybe you should try lifting something heavy?"

Miya looked up at me in confusion. "Super strong?"

"Yeah. You know, like a super hero or something."

It was obvious Miya didn't know what I was talking about and frankly I barely remembered what a super hero was myself. She did seem to understand the general idea though and walked over to a nearby log.

"I'll try lifting this then."

Almost nervously she crouched down and put her hands under the bottom of the log. It was a pretty big one, some ancient fir that had finally been broken by the world and fallen. With a grunt she started standing up trying to lift the log.

She did.

"Woah!"

She let out a cry as the log lifted up alongside her as if it had been a twig. In fact the resistance was so little that she completely flipped it over, the motion of her body causing her to fall over backwards with a thud onto the ground.

"God-dess...."

To be honest I was in shock, but not nearly as much shock as she was herself. She just sat there staring at her hands in front of her face. The dumbfounded look on her face to be expected of someone in this situation.

I recovered first and tried to speak. "Now Miya. Don't panic."

Panic wasn't the reaction she had.

"Goddess! Did you see that?"

With the speed of a frenzied child she leapt up to her feet again. The excitement overflowing from her with such intensity I could feel it like a wave coming off her body. She ran over to the log and flipped it again sending it flying across the clearing to smash in half against a large boulder.

"I'm so strong goddess!" she cried in delight.

Next she ran over the boulder the log had smashed into and crouched down, sticking her hands into the dirt below it and letting out a grunt. As she stood back up the boulder lifted quite easily out of the dirt. The thing was several times bigger than she was but yet it was hoisted above her head with her only straining a little.

"Look! Look!"

This might get out of hand.

"Yes yes I'm looking." I replied. "I understand you're excited Miya but you need to put that boulder down. You need to be careful not to hurt yourself."

Miya tossed the boulder back where it had been resting and the ground shook slightly with a deep thud. She then ran over to me and up to my feet, crouching and attempting to put her hands under my boots.

"Watch this goddess!"

Yeah this was definitely getting out of hand.

Before she could do anything I quickly lifted my foot and pulled it towards myself, shifting my position to lean forwards. I reached out and gently pinched her waist between my forefinger and thumb, lifting her squirming body into the air and then bringing her back as I sat up.

"Woah there superstar. Lets not get carried away right away ok?"

Miya was squirming around between my fingers and I could actually feel her resistance. It would actually be enough to break free and I had to increase my grip to keep her held, something that made me nervous due to my need to be gentle.

"But goddess!" She whined. "I was gunna lift up your foot!"

"Settle down Miya. Stop squirming! That's an order from your goddess."

This thankfully made her stop struggling and allowed my grip to relax. My other hand had been moved under her to catch her in case she fell and it remained there as I lifted her up to my face to get a better look at her. She was pouting between my fingers like a child that had just been scolded by their parents.

"Well that worked." I said with a sigh. "But now I have to deal with a overly excited girl with the power of a earthquake."

"I'm not overly excited." Miya said with a pout.

"Yes you are. And most importantly because this is going to be permanent you need to learn your own strength Miya."

Miya looked up at me with confusion. "Learn my own strength?"

"Mhm. Like look how I'm holding you right now. I'm being very careful because if I used too much of my strength I would smush you like a bug. I'm sure you've picked up an insect before right? You had to be careful so you didn't hurt it right?"

"So I can't use my strength because I might hurt insects?"

The confusion was apparent on her face as I gently placed her down in my other hand's open palm. This was going to take some explanation and I let her stand there looking at her hands while I thought. A certain quote came to mind.

"With power comes responsibility." I said proud to remember such an important lesson. "You're kinda like my pupil now and this is the most important lesson there is."

"So I have to use this power responsibly you mean?" Miya said looking up at me again.

"That's right. Basically now you're so much stronger than everyone else that as my high priestess your also able to better help those in need. Think of all the good you'll be able to do now that you can lift such heavy things!"

I let her mind wander as she was clearly thinking about such things right now.

"Its also critically important that you learn your own strength though. What if you were hugging your mother and accidentally hugged her too hard and-"

"Eek!"

Miya let out a shriek and covered her head with her hands clearly in distress.

"Don't speak of such horrible things goddess! I would never!"

"Relax. Relax. Take a deep breath."

With a smile I reached out with a fingertip and stroked her back to calm her down. It seemed to work and she began breathing deeply. This seemed to calm her down greatly and she lowered her hands to look back up at me.

"See how gentle I was right then?" I said gently. "I know my own strength. I've been interacting with you villagers quite a lot recently haven't I?"

"So how do you do it goddess?"

"Simple: I've been practicing being gentle. First on objects like trees and rocks, then on animals, and finally on people. You're going to have to begin practicing everyday to control your strength."

"My family..."

The look on her face was one of defeat. She probably thought she had to cut off all human contact or something.

"I'm not saying you have to avoid people Miya. All I mean is that you have to limit contact with people that might lead to you hurting them until you've practiced enough. Just avoid hugs and handshakes, that sort of thing. You can still touch and be touched by others."

This seemed to cheer her up a bit.

"Want an example of practice?" I asked.

"Yes please goddess!" She said with some of the excitement returning to her voice.

"Ok lets try this then."

With her standing in my palm I brought up my other hand, moving my index finger over to her and holding it in front of her.

"Put your hands on it and try to push it back."

Miya placed her hands on my fingertip and began pushing on it. At first I didn't apply any resistance at all but slowly began increasing it. In turn she increased her own strength to try and match mine. My finger never moved either direction much but I was starting to apply more resistance then I had originally expected to. She was actually pretty strong. Obviously not nearly as much as me, not even close, but surely enough to compare say a mouse to a human. Pretty impressive actually.

"Ok that's enough." I said finally.

Miya dropped her hands from my finger and looked up at me as I removed my other hand.

"There see?" I asked. "You increased your strength slowly as I did mine. In the end nothing bad happened because it was gradual and we adjusted ourselves based on the other person."

"I think I understand goddess." She said looking at her hands again. "So I just have to do that but when picking up stuff or when touching others?"

"Mhm exactly! You'll have to practice everyday so this can become second nature to you. Can I trust you with this high priestess?"

She beamed up to me with a smile on her face and lifted her arms in celebration.

"Of course great goddess! Thank you so much!"

I returned the smile and gently lowered my hand to the ground, carefully picking her up with my fingers and placing her next to my leg. She immediately picked up a nearby stick and began testing bending it with her hands, it snapped quickly of course.

"Now don't despair Miya. Just keep practicing ok?"

She looked up at me. "Yes goddess."

"Alright then. I have to go help out the Yuvoghen now. There's some defenses to be made for them. Hopefully that mage family doesn't show up."

With mindfulness of where Miya was near my legs I pulled my legs in and pushed myself into standing up. Looking down at her on the ground reminded me of how tiny she still was, though now she had some amount of strength to rival me in some small way. Had I created a monster? By my estimations no, she was trustworthy with this power.

You stay here and practice ok? But don't stay out too late."

Miya had moved on to a large stone now and was messing with it in her hands. Her focus had been on it while I had been speaking and now she looked up at me once again.

"Yes goddess. You be safe over there ok? Those mages scared me."

"Maybe they don't scare you as much anymore though hm? Now that you can smash a boulder with your hands?"

"Maybe not goddess."

We both giggled a bit before I gave her a wave and turned to leave.

"Alright I'll see you tonight."

Miya waved back. "Bye goddess!"

After turning towards Yuvoghen and walking a short distance I let out a sigh and shook my head slightly. This was going to be a learning experience for both of us, if not everyone in the village. Giving out powers wasn't something I would do often. My high priestess obviously needed them, but what that seed of power would evolve into I had no idea, because it clearly wouldn't stay the same forever. At the very least if worst came to worst I could remove it. All things for me to mull over tonight as right now I had a village to help out.